What’s hilarious (to me) as I went to post my fabulous gold podium leap, turns out I had cleared cache, cookies and history! So of course, all that had to be re-entered, and somehow managed top of the charts. Been a while. Still laughing, but won’t use that icky new lol gimmick, it has no teeth!! :)

“But what were the costs and benefits of the Crimean operation? On the one hand, Putin’s popularity greatly increased. The reunification of Crimea with Russia permitted Putin to rearrange his propaganda and make patriotism a main value again, matching the hysterical level as it was in Stalin’s time. Additionally, he was able to expand the fight against anyone who is critical of his regime, labeling them as “national traitors” or “members of the fifth column.”

On the other hand, Russia’s geopolitical situation has deteriorated enormously. Practically all former Soviet republics became even more suspicious of Putin’s intentions. What is especially important is that whatever Russia chooses to do, the Ukraine will for decades be the fierce enemy of Moscow, such that has never been seen before in Russian-Ukrainian relations. Does this mean the Eastern European countries have yet another reason for their apprehension toward Russia and, in turn, the perceived need to expand America’s military presence.

The sanctions against Russia, even in their initial weak forms, have already hurt the very vulnerable Russian economy. So far, the sanctions against the ruling elite are even more serious. Many of these individuals who were hit by the sanctions are impervious to patriotic propaganda and are emotionally not ready to exchange the annexation of Crimea for their possibility to travel to the West and control their wealth there. If in the Soviet Union private property played a zero political role, in the new Russia it is a tremendous factor influencing all sides of public life. Without a doubt, Putin created a hidden front against him within the political and economic establishment for which personal wealth – with no comparison to the Soviet apparatchiks – is of primordial importance.”

Great analysis, Bob. Thx for the link. Political popularity is fleeting. It can change on a dime if people get hungry or can’t pay their bills. The geopolitical, economic devastation that Putin’s actions have wrought will bite hard and long.

Wow! So easy to forget what a BFD this was. President Barack Obama did this. Democrats did this. ALL OF YOU who organized and voted, did this. Pisses me off that anyone should try and take our healthcare.

I signed brother up for BS if SoCal. They are very slow to bill that I had to get the first billing through Tally. The next month they did not send it and I had to make a copy of the first billing. They sent the Mar billing the day before it was due. They said I had 30 days to pay so they are always a month behind.

On the national scene the White House reported 7.1mil on Tues. But the state exchanges hadn’t fully reported in. That may add another million, especially with California.
Then the Rand Corp. estimates an addition 9 million enrollments nationally of same QHPs (priv ins Qualified HealthPlans offered on the state exchanges but enrolled directly with Insurance companies.)
Add 3.1 Million of young adults who are now covered by parents’ plans thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
Add an additional 4.7-6.4 million expanded Medicaid/Chips enrollments.
and you get numbers between 14.6- 22 million total.http://acasignups.net/
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Update from Oregon on enrollment numbers:

“Van Pelt highlights the more than 300,000 “enrolled in health care coverage since October thanks to Cover Oregon … and the Oregon Health Authority.”

That figure includes:

55,000 people enrolled in private plans using the backup manual processing system set up to cope with the exchange’s technology issues.
more than 120,000 people enrolled into Oregon Health Plan after the exchange forwarded their information to the state for processing, a workaround for the exchange’s broken Medicaid interface.
125,000 people enrolled directly into the Oregon Health Plan using a streamlined system set up to bypass Cover Oregon.”
Oregon still has another month open enrollment. So the numbers will grow.

Thanks, Bill! Our OFA team just picked up another 500 Cover Oregon brochures in both English and Spanish to put in thrift shops, food pantries, laundromats, coffee houses, community centers, libraries, and other places young folks hang out. We will keep it going in Oregon until our much-needed enrollment extension finishes at the end of the month. I’d love to see us get close to what our northern rivals, WA achieved.

Great work, Judith. The 2015 exchanges will go up just before the 2014 elections and the pr buildup from September to October will be fierce. Many will then have heard from friends and relatives about the peace of mind they’ve gotten with health insurance. Our job is to make sure they know which party is on their side and which one isn’t

This is another waste of time move, Linda. It will go nowhere. The US House has UI extension, immigration reform and minimum wage to take care, so they choose to spend their time doing useless, idiot make work.

so the people at fox who have spent more than 5 years lying about Obamacare are now suddenly concerned that some money was spent by Team Obama trying to counter the lies they and the gop propagated;

by the way I am just hearing about the amount of money that fox is quoting just in their tweet – so given their reputation to lie all the time, the quoted amount may soon turn out to be a lie;

didn’t this gop congress greatly reduce the amount that was originally allocated to promoting Obamacare and helping people to sign up?

;

but to the larger picture – if fox was so concerned about anyone using tax dollars to promote Obamacare, then many be they should have made sure that they and their gop representatives don’t spend so many days and resource lying about the ACA;

besides, Obamacare is not the first law/policy to be promoted using taxes and it will not be the last